Working on refitting 104's with aB crossovers I today began wondering why KEF used the wire type in these early designs.

Is it steel? Was copper deemed too expensive? Are there other desirable qualities to these rock hard strands?

In soldering it takes so long to heat, then holds heat so long that I always fear damaging delicate components down the line ... like voice coils.
Of course I suppose repairs & alterations were never considered in the original plans, but I'd love to know what was the thinking behind the choice._________________Music is food for the soul.

Until cheap Zambian high purity copper came on the market and QED 42 strand arrived in the hi-fi world copper wire was really only used for power transmission, distribution and telephony.

Considering the lengths of wire used in a speaker, steel was easier to handle in a production environment as impurity laden copper wire was stiffer and would require annealing.

Oh for the trivial pursuitists, Spendor speakers used two wire gauges thinner and LS3/5as used three to four wire gauges thinner than any contemporary KEF design._________________This post or any other information supplied to this website or any other by myself is not available for any form of commercial purpose i.e. to hi-fi magazines or as sales and marketing material for sleezeBay or Audiodogging pimps and the like.

Just stripped a piece of wire attached to an SP1039 from a KEF 104 I'm playing with, it's heavily plated copper ._________________This post or any other information supplied to this website or any other by myself is not available for any form of commercial purpose i.e. to hi-fi magazines or as sales and marketing material for sleezeBay or Audiodogging pimps and the like.

A lot, if not all of the xo caps and power resistors had copper coated steel leadout wires which were then tinned. Much more robust in a production environment. Quite handy if you dropped one....you'd find it on the back of the speaker magnet .

Last edited by speakerguru on Sat Feb 12, 2011 2:21 pm; edited 1 time in total

I stand corrected.
My original 104 piece of black B200 wire sports 16 strands of silver coloured something that LOOKS like steel but not attracted to Canadian magnets.
If it's coated it's heavily clad indeed, but what on what and how do you tell?. I can't scrape away anything to reveal a copper underlay.
Curiouser & curiouser._________________Music is food for the soul.

For internal cable I think I'll just leave what's there, well enough alone.
Given the very short lengths involved I seriously doubt there's any "improvement" these ears will notice by changing it.
And more he-manly stuff does not attach very well to the boards.

At the moment my brain's gone into hyper-drive trying to make sense of the most recent posting in this section, 104's to 104aB's.
Happens I'm doing that same thing ... but admittedly with a very different approach!_________________Music is food for the soul.

I was able to get a selection of Belkin wire from Solen here in Canada that I found really good. Not too dear either.

There was a 22 gauge I think, and some heavier 20 gauge that was easy to work with. I used some for the input wire (terminals to crossover) in the 105 II's when I changed broken binding posts.

I went looking for it today but alas it's offered no more.
If I HAD to change internal wire, or was building from scratch that's for sure what I'd try to source again._________________Music is food for the soul.

Try the Western Electric cables. 22AWG should suffice. I tried it and got hooked. Yes, just a short length of tinned copper wire wrapped in cloth/silk, but it does make beautiful music. _________________Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.